It all began when I was six years old... I asked my parents for a dog and they compromised with a less "care intensive pet" (or so they thought)ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Âa 10-gallon FW tank.
About 5 years later I decided to do saltwater. I bought a 55-gal and set up a fish-only tank. Looking back, it amazing how ignorant I was about the hobby. The 55 had poor circulation and cyanobacteria blooms but also held some of my favorite fish. A Picasso Trigger, Porcupine Fish, and a two-foot Engineer gobi had long and happy lives there.
When I was thirteen, I started working at Seascapes (under the in/famous Rick). I learned most of what I know about the hobby there. When Rick gave me a old 100-gallon tank, I decided to take the plunge into reef husbandry.
My initial set up was:
100 gal display, 30 gal sump, 4x110 W VHO, ~70lb live rock, ~300gph tank-sump circ., assorted power-heads from my previous tank. I had a protein skimmer, but it was more trouble than it was worth so I took it out.
I would have liked to have had a better set up but a 14-year-old's budget is tight. 90% of the corals in my tank are from SEABay and BARE. The ones that did well in my tank (xenia, kenya tree, polyps, mushrooms, colt coral...) fragged, grew, and sold to LFSs for food, supplies, etc.
These are two half shots of my tank after it had been running for about 1.5 years.
Look for the Regal Tang, Scopas Tang, and Percula Clown that are still with me. You can also see algae covering all my rocks and the several leather corals and a colt coral that have done quite well over the years.
In 2006, I made several changes to my tank. I installed a small in-sump Euro-reef skimmer. I am incredibly happy with it. Euro-reefs are definately worth it! The stuff they pull out is disgusting! I also replaced the 4 old powerheads that hung by there cords with 4 Maxijet 1200s on a wavemaker. I like the Maxijets because they are powerful for there size and come with a hook that clips onto my overflow boxes (suction cups suck). The wavemaker is very nice because it provides random circulation and much fewer dead spots.
Here is the tank at 3 years old.
The unicorn tang is the latest edition.
I went off to college in the fall of 06. My tank takes care of itself for the most part. I pay my brother to feed the fish and clean the plexi when I'm gone. I change the water when I come home. ~ once every 3 months.
I'll upload current pictures soon.